I don’t know whether to post here or there, which is somewhat related, but what about something like this…

Assuming Joyent says the project domains no longer get a free ride, and assuming current domain owners would be willing to transfer domains to the project’s care (under the circumstances), then what about setting up a reseller account—like one of these, for example—where the five project domains (.com, .net, .org, txg, mag) are housed, and:

a) annual patron drives are established to ensure domain name ownership and hosting is covered, orb) remaining virtual domains are sold to other site owners interested in hosting under project (as a reseller) care.

The idea in situation (b) is that reselling covers the costs of project domains, and remaining difference goes to core development. Heck, I’d even consider being the first buyer under such a plan if it was somewhat feasible to competitive rates. I’m sure I’d not be alone with this mass exodus from Joyent right now.

We do not endorse any of those over every other host on the planet (as we do not know your exact requirements) but if you happen to go for one of those we receive a kickback. This in turn goes to the core team and is spent for the booze we need to fuel our creativity.

I guess you can take Joyent off that list, eh? I mean, isn’t that why were here? Anybody who’s losing their lifetime hosting from Joyent isn’t going to pay them anymore; not based on the sentiment I’m seeing in the rounds of discussion.

I don’t think we want to get into the hosting business (option “b”). Not even for friends and colleagues.

Can’t say I blame you. It was just an idea. You need contingency ideas at the moment. Here’s a running list, including the two I’ve mentioned already:

Option C: Try and make a new “partner” arrangement with a web host; they provide hosting like Joyent used to do, and Textpattern permanently gives them advertising. (As Editor for the magazine, this is the first thing I would pursue for that domain at least, but since you own the domain, it involves you on the administration side of things.)

Option D: Still reliant on getting ownership of the scattered domains. The respective domains are given to the current leads of the sites to responsibly manage and fund—perhaps even under a contract of faith—who would freely transfer the domains to the next leaders, etc, when the time comes. This at least leverages the expenses if community donations aren’t made to one person. So, currently it’s:

.com – Robert

.net – Destry (or Ruud?)

.org – Stef

txpmag – Destry

txg – Stuart

Option E: Go for what Phil was implying in a different thread; actually create physical subdomains under .com for plugins, themes, and docs and put content there. That would reduce cost of five domains to two, and I’d still be willing to fund the magazine as long as I’m Editor (i.e., owning the domain). If Dean keeps up with registration costs on .com, then wet only funds the hosting. But again, the dark side to this option is that the other domains are then left in the ether for someone to use in potentially damaging ways.

Option F: Similar to E, drop unnecessary domains by adopting (supposedly free) web-based tools to replace them. Though at the moment I an only think of a web-based wiki for docs, and that doesn’t seem worth the effort by itself.

You can see, perhaps, various combinations and alterations of these options. For example, go with option E, but still encourage option A. Or go with option D but still pursue option C. Etc.

Colak: Like Reid said in the J-forum, I’m sure Hoffman thought long and hard about the repercussions his announcement would make before he made it. Maybe he overlooked the Textpattern sites and something might be worked out there, but I’d recommend Textpattern keeps looking for a plan B just in case.